


Wishing for some Kale

by HeWhoIsMany



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Gen, Gender or Sex Swap, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 06:54:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20689331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeWhoIsMany/pseuds/HeWhoIsMany
Summary: When Carver finds the Dragon Balls completely by accident, he makes a wish that truly changes his life forever.





	Wishing for some Kale

When it all came down to it, Carver was a pretty normal guy. He had a normal job, a normal apartment, and a normal family. It was perhaps in rebellion of those more pedestrian traits that he started his favorite hobby, nearly nine years ago: urban exploration. It was dangerous, the kind of thing that got Carver's blood pumping with fear and adrenaline. After all, there was never any guarantee on what he'd find in each abandoned building he searched. Sometimes he'd find nothing at all (in fact that's what he found more often than not), but there was always the chance of stumbling across a dangerous wild animal, a den of criminals, or some kind of environmental hazard that killed the original occupants.  
  
The streets of West City were quiet on the night that forever changed Carver's normal world. It was nearing midnight, and Carver was dressed in his usual 'scouting gear', a red sweatshirt so dark is was almost black, and a pair of sweatpants. The pockets of both were empty, he always left his keys, phone, and wallet at home, to make sure he couldn't lose anything if mugged. His target that night was a large apartment complex, uninhabited for nearly a decade, built on the edge of the city, and so far it had given him nothing but struggled breathing from all the stairs he was climbing. It was on the seventh floor when he heard someone, in a room down the hallway. Excitement and terror gripped him, but after freezing for a moment he began to walk towards the sound of the voice, trying to do so as quietly as he could.  
  
"...they laughed at be, oh yes they laughed," came the voice of an old man, only stopping in what sounded like a rant to cough hard enough that Carver thought a lung might soon end up on the floor. "Well, I've shown them. I just need to set the last ball down here, and I can finally bring back Doctor Wheelo." Carver couldn't understand what this guy was talking about, but as he reached the doorway to the room he was in, ajar enough for a quick peek, he saw that the old man looked like he was on death's door, and six bright orange balls were on the floor in front of him, so bright and shiny that they seemed almost magical. A seventh ball sat in an open box on a table, and the man walked closer to it, reaching out one hand, when another coughing fit started. "No, not now!" he barely managed to get out, through the coughs. Whatever this was, it began to get worse and worse, until the old man, wearing a stained lab coat, was on the ground, gasping for air. Carver knew he should have walked into the room and tried to help, but something about the sight arrested any action.  
  
When finally he man was still, Carver worked up the courage to enter the room, and with a touch to the man's wrinkled skin, Carver knew he was dead. For a moment, there was nothing Carver wanted more in the world but to run out of the building and forget he ever saw any of this. But the balls on the floor caught his eyes once more, and he quietly shuffled over to the box holding the seventh of their kind. Next to the box, on the table, was a note, written in precise, harsh handwriting. "1) Take the balls outside. 2) Place them in a circle. 3) Speak the wish." It sounded crazy, reading and rereading the note, the idea that these balls somehow could grant a wish. But...what if they could? As if possessed, Carver stuffed the balls in his pockets, two in each side of his sweatpants and two more in the sweatshirt. The seventh he kept in the box, and as quickly as he could Carver walked out of the room, down the stairs, and into the night air. There was no one nearby, and the lot across the street was empty, nothing but greenish blue grass.  
  
Nearly running into the center of the tiny field, Carver placed the balls on the ground, one by one, noticing as he did so that each contained an amount of stars. Four stars. Six stars. One star. Three stars. Five stars. Seven stars. Then, last, was the Two star ball in the box. At first, Carver's heart sank as it seemed like nothing was happening, but that disappointment faded away as the lights began to glow, brighter and brighter until each was as bright as the sun, and the dark sky above suddenly rumbled with thunder. Suddenly, it became clear something was in the clouds, something enormous beyond all reason. It was scaly, and green, and was it's head come out of the clouds, directly above Carver, he saw it was a horned dragon. It flew down until it's head, large enough to devour a car, until it was staring at Carver, it's eyes as red as a dying star. **"What are your three wishes?"**  
  
This was all so fantastic, Carver couldn't believe it. An enormous dragon, summoned in front of him, was asking for three wishes? After a moment of stunned silence, he found his voice and suddenly knew exactly what he wanted to wish for. "I wish to be strong enough to defend myself! I wish to never have to be afraid again!" Then, with some humility, he added, "I wish to never be blinded by my power, that my ego would never make me cruel or arrogant!"  
  
They were vague wishes to be sure, and after a few seconds of silence Carver wasn't sure how the dragon would react. Would it deny the wishes, refuse to grant them? **"Your wishes have been granted."** The eyes glowed brighter as it spoke, flying off into the sky once more as the bright orange balls rose into the air, turned into stone, and shot off in different directions, leaving Carver alone. Once the excitement had worn off, he looked down at himself. He didn't feel any different...how exactly had his wishes been granted?  
  
Then, a sudden pain hit him in his stomach, and his body crumpled as he fell to his knees. His entire body was burning up, like the world's worst fever was hitting him. Carver's muscles screamed in agony as they flexed, more and more, harder and harder, all beyond his control. He could even swear that it looked like his clothes were moving, shrinking, changing, but the pain was so blinding that he wondered if it was an illusion brought on by the nightmare. Suddenly, it all stopped, and after a moment of numbness, Carver's body felt entirely foreign. Looking down at himself, he was immediately stunned to see his sweatshirt and sweatpants were now a small red blouse and matching skirt, and metallic gold bracers were affixed to his wrists, matching the boots and greaves on his feet and ankles. Of course, more important was how different the body under the clothes had become.  
  
Carver was never the most bulky guy, in muscles or fat, but now he was tiny, with a skinny frame that looked entirely feminine. Helped by that were the breasts now filling out his top, covered enough to where there was no cleavage, small enough that they weren't incredibly remarkable but large enough to be noticeable to Carver, since they were attached to his torso. With a sudden intuition, he reached down to pat his skirt and felt there was nothing inside it he would have recognized. Sprinting over to a nearby shop window, he saw a woman staring back at him, with a pretty face and messy black hair pulled into a ponytail, small gold hoop earrings in both ears. Almost not believing it at first, Carver turned and posed, watching as the woman in the mirror copied his actions. So his wish had been granted, but how? How exactly was he stronger, or less afraid, or more humble? Then, Carver realized his feet weren't touching the ground. Looking more closely, he saw they were several feet above it, and he was flying.  
  
With that realization, so much more than that flooded into Carver's brain. He could fly, he had ki, the ability to shoot energy out of his body in projectile attacks, the strength to fight at a level far above any human's. In fact, he wasn't human anymore, he was an alien, a Saiyan. He had the ability to transform his body, turning into a great ape by looking at a Full Moon (while he had a tail), or becoming a Super Saiyan with blonde hair and enhanced strength at will. He also had a name to go with this body, Kale. Despite that, Carver kept all his original memories, and he wasn't about to suddenly adopt everything that came with this new body.  
  
That was a good decision anyway, Carver found himself thinking, after all, he wasn't much of a Saiyan anyway. Compared to the heights others of his kind could reach, Carver was basically nothing, a nobody, not worth even a second of consideration. Only on Earth, a planet of weaklings, would he ever be considered strong. The sudden mental turn towards self-depreciation was odd to Carver, he wasn't one to do that normally. Was this what he got for wishing not to go crazy with power? "Hey there, nice to meet you!" came a friendly voice in the sky. Carver turned to look, and found himself staring at an adult man with hair like his own, wearing a bright orange gi and a smile on his face. There was something about the man that was immediately attractive, and Kale found herself wanting to talk to him, but he'd probably never like her anyway, she was so plain and boring and...Carver shook his head, struggling not to mentally fall into the hole he'd nearly been swallowed by. Suddenly, the man was several feet away from Carver, also floating. "I'm Son Gohan, and you look like a fellow Saiyan. Did you just make a wish on the Dragon Balls?"  
  
So that's what they were called, Carver found himself thinking. It made sense, they were balls that summoned a dragon. "Yes, that was me," he replied, struck immediately by how quiet and womanly his voice sounded now. "I found them nearby, and made some wishes and..." Suddenly realizing Gohan had introduced himself but Carver hadn't, he was about to do so as well when he thought that no, telling Gohan he had just before been a human man named Carver wasn't going to go well. It would invite so many more questions, and be embarrassing, and he'd never like her if he knew she was once a man. "...and my name is Kale, I guess my wishes turned me into a space alien. Do you...think you could explain what's going on for me?" That was the first day of Carver, or rather, Kale's life as a Saiyan Warrior, and while it turned out Gohan was married and devoted to his wife, she did find herself becoming friends with his younger brother...until they were a little more than friends. But that's a story for another time.


End file.
